Luck of the Irish returns
When Australian actor Guy Pearce had to revert to his awkward alter-ego in the ABC's third adaptation of Jack Irish: Dead Point last year, it was a far less complex journey this time around.
It was more than two years ago that the Hollywood heavyweight was tasked with portraying novelist Peter Temple's bumbling anti-hero in the TV adaptations of Bad Debts and Black Tide, which were shot simultaneously in Melbourne, the city he still calls home.
Although it was a role he had tackled with fierce enthusiasm, when it came to filming Dead Point - the third novel in Temple's Jack Irish series - Pearce rejoiced in the fact he only had to focus on multifaceted storylines drawn from one book, as opposed to two.
"For the first two films it was kind of difficult, to be honest, because they're complex stories as far as there being so many different characters," Pearce recalls.
"There were points where I actually said to (director) Jeffrey Walker 'OK, so I'm meeting Steve Bisley after I've met so and so' and he'd go 'No, that's from the other movie'. So when we did Dead Point, it was nice to just concentrate on the one story."
Despite the two-year gap between shooting the first two films and Dead Point, slipping back into Jack Irish's shoes came naturally.
"It really didn't take long at all to get back into it; it was remarkably easy, to be honest," Pearce says.
"There's something very comfortable in even some of Jack's awkwardness. I think because the scripts are so beautifully but simply put together you're not having to do extraneous work that you sometimes do on a new film.
"Just as far as understanding the motivation of a character and why the plot is doing this as opposed to this, I think we nutted that out on those first two films."
Dead Point opens with frantic scenes of a high-speed car chase which later becomes an investigation into a dead drug dealer, which police initially believe to be an overdose but others suspect is foul play.
When Irish stumbles into the scene, it seems little has changed for the once-successful Melbourne lawyer. He is still a broken man trying to rebuild his life, haunted by flashbacks of his murdered wife and seeking escape at his home away from home, the Prince of Prussia pub, while keeping his shady ties with the racing underworld.
Irish somehow finds himself back to playing a detective/lawyer after being tasked with hunting down a mysterious "red book" that could destroy one of his high-profile clients, Justice Loder, played by Barry Humphries in a rare TV drama appearance.
Irish crosses paths with former flame and journalist Linda Hillier (Marta Dusseldorp, star of Seven's drama A Place to Call Home and ABC court drama Janet King) which reignites the couple's fiery relationship.
Dead Point is brimming with a seasoned ensemble Australian cast, including Humphries, Vince Colosimo, Deborah Mailman and Kat Stewart, who join returning faces Dusseldorp, Roy Billing, Aaron Pedersen, Shane Jacobson and Damien Richardson.
Having worked with some of Hollywood's finest - Robert Downey Jr, Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger, to name a few - it was a surprise to hear that Pearce was in awe working with local talent throughout the Jack Irish series.
"It's a real treat, I get a bit starstruck with these people," Pearce humbly admits. "But it's fantastic to have the same people again like Shane, Damien Richardson, Marta and all those guys from the first two as well as all this new great cast.
"When you look at the scripts and how well they're written, I think you could get any actor. But (ABC) aim high and get who they want."
With credits ranging from Hollywood blockbusters like Iron Man 3 and Prometheus to HBO's mini-series Mildred Pierce (which earned him an Emmy Award for best supporting actor), it goes without saying that work hasn't been hard to come by for Pearce.
Nonetheless, he says nothing beats working on a compelling Australian project like Jack Irish, especially one that is set and filmed in his home town.
"It's a sense of loyalty you have to the town and the sense of familiarity you have because you live there," Pearce says. "But there's also something really satisfying, I think, in expressing culturally what is yours. Even though I'm playing a different character, I feel like I can understand that stuff on a different level than I can when working on something foreign."
'There's something really satisfying in expressing culturally what is yours . . . I feel like I can understand that stuff on a different level.'
